Religious Imagination and Language in Emerson and Nietzsche

151 Pages·1994·24.897 MB·

by  Irena S. M. Makarushka (auth.)

RELIGIOUS IMAGINATION AND LANGUAGE
IN EMERSON AND NIETZSCHE
STUDIESIN LITERATUREANDRELIGION
General Editor: DavidJasper, Directorof the Centrefor the Study
ofLiteratureand Theology, UniversityofGlasgow
Studiesin Literatureand Religion isaseriesofinterdisciplinary
titles, bothmonographsand essays,concerned withmattersof
literature, artand textuality within religious traditions founded
upon texts and textualstudy. Ina varietyofways theyare
concerned with the fundamental issuesof the imagination,
literary perceptionsand theory, and an understandingofpoetics
for theologyand religiousstudies.
Religious Imagination
and Language in
Emerson and Nietzsche
Irena S. M.Makarushka
AssistantProfessorofReligion
BowdoinCollege,Brunswick,Maine
©Irena S.M. Makarushka 1994
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1994 978-0-333-56976-4
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ISBN 978-1-349-39079-3 ISBN 978-0-230-37530-7 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9780230375307
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For Christina, Marta and Damian
For thewritersonReligion - none should speak on
thismatterpolemically: it istheGai Science &
onlytobe chanted bytroubadours
Emerson, July 1873
Contents
General Editor's Preface ix
Pretext xi
1 Emerson on Religion 1
Religion and the God Within 5
Justification and the Unmediated Knowledge
of God 10
Religion as the Creative Process of Inner
Affirmation 20
2 Nietzsche on Religion 26
End of Beliefand the Origin of Religion 30
'Glad Tidings' as Imagination and Practice 40
3 Emerson on Language:Poetics of Religious
Experience 50
Parts and the Whole: Words and Language 53
TransparentThings 71
4 Nietzsche on Language: Interpretation as
Religious Practice 79
Knowledge, Illusion and the CreativeWill 82
Language as Metaphor 86
Ambiguity, Interpretation and Meaning 93
Afterthoughts 104
Notes 105
vii
viii Contents
Select Bibliography 125
Index 131
General Editor's Preface
My guess, and hope, is that this book will engender debate and
argument. Forinapparentlyabandoningreligionand theology,with
Emerson and Nietzsche reconfiguring 'God as a metaphor for hu
man inwardness and creativity', it nevertheless restores a sense of
the valueofreligionand the meaningfulnessoftheologicallanguage
within postmodern discourse.
Some years ago, Giles Gunn stated his task as 'to reconstitute the
discussion on the plane of the hermeneutical rather than the apolo
getic, the anthropological rather than the theological, the broadly
humanistic rather than the narrowlydoctrinal.' (The Interpretation of
Otherness, 1979). In her book, Irena Makarushka maintains these
terms, yet in a context which recognizes the crucial importance of
the past fifteen years for religious reflection. She returns us, almost
paradoxically, to 'traditional' categories of thought - the
Christological, the doctrineofcreation.'DeathofGod' theologywas
a phenomenon of the sixties. Makarushka'sbook providesa crucial
commentary on the continuing importance of such theology in the
'postmodern age', by returning it to its historical roots in the USA
and in European thought.
The underlying concerns here are contemporary, described as
from an 'a/theological postmodern feminist perspective.' The cent
rality of hermeneutics and an understanding of the nature of lan
guagein the religioussearchforhumanfreedom ishereset inaclear
historicalperspectivewhichrevealsthe shallownessofsomuchthat
passes for 'postmodern theology.' We realize just how much hard
work there is to be done, and the responsibilities we bear, as we
claim freedom from worn-outinstitutions,remindedas we are here,
that, whetherwe like itor not, we mustcontinuetointeractwithour
inheritance, both theological and cultural.
Writing from a British perspective, I am conscious of a sense of
dialoguewithwritingwhichishoned upon adifferentculture,with
a different sense of the place- though perhaps not the nature - of
theology within it. The sense of dialogue, however, is important,
since the issues which here emerge in this study of Emerson and
ix